SunLive 3 October 2020
Our additional comment: Well said Larry (as always 🙂 )
“Marijuana is often portrayed as harmless. Nothing could be further from the truth. Marijuana changed my personality, altered my motivations in life, and distorted my perception of reality and what I should be pursuing as a career.” Before embarking on a lifestyle of smoking dope he found he was in the top academic classes at Tauranga Boys’ College. He says taking up smoking marijuana caused him to drop well down to the lower achieving sixth form classes.”
A common occurrence – sadly.
In this year’s General Election, as well as voting for future leaders, we can also vote in a referendum on whether the recreational use of cannabis should become legal.
The Weekend Sun asked Tauranga City Councillor Larry Baldock, who himself was once a regular dope smoker, whether he was voting ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
“There are many reasons why I will vote ‘no’ in the upcoming referendum,” says Larry.
Larry recounts being raised by his solo mum in Gate Pa, alongside five siblings.
“In the spring of 1969 after I had just turned 15, a friend asked me if I wanted to try something exciting called LSD. I had not taken any drugs before, or even been anywhere near drunk, but this sounded like it might be fun.
“I can’t deny that it was.”
Larry spent the following six years smoking marijuana a lot and taking LSD every now and then.
“I was lucky as a teenager to have escaped some of the deadly consequences of drug use in the wild experimental times of the late 60s and early 70s. Some of my friends did not.”
Larry says most rational thinking people know that LSD, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin are dangerous, but says marijuana is often portrayed as harmless.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. Marijuana changed my personality, altered my motivations in life, and distorted my perception of reality and what I should be pursuing as a career.”
READ MORE: https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/253228-larry-on-cannabis-yes-or-no.html
